Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Learning Consent, Doris #15, Doris an anthology 1991-2001

(microcosm) Cindy is not only a veteran zine maker -- she's a heaven sent prototypical zine maker! You could not have a better example of how a xerox, cut-n-paste, handwritten/typewriter typed/personal/political/free flowing thought/revealing/funny/serious zine is supposed to look or feel than her Doris zine, nicely compiled in a recently reprinted thick book (that we previously reviewed). Also recently reprinted is issue 15, a now decade-old theme issue about embracing and combatting depression, told almost entirely is un-self conscious stick figure comix. But most interesting is her new compilation Learning Good Consent, with different perspectives (dude, queer [both flavors], date rape-ee, etc.) on sexual consent. When Antioch College established its verbal consent policy back in the early 90s it was easy to have mixed feelings about it. Obviously anything to prevent rape is a good thing, but telling people how they have to talk during sex seemed crazy -- the beauty of sex is that it's supposed to be private and personal in a way that there's nothing you can do or say that is fucked up or wrong...with consent of your partner. And there's the rub, establishing consent is so crucial, especially amongst people as dumb as we all are at 19 or 22 that it's hard to argue with any of the perspectives in this book. More interestingly, it's revealing how to many folks consent can be just as freaky a turn on as any so-called deviance.